The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Sindh chief secretary, advocate general and inspector general to submit a comprehensive report over its directives on Karachi law and order situation and subsequent orders of October and November last.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, also sought a report in the light of Aneeta Turab’s case regarding protection to civil servants. The bench ordered authorities concerned to apprise it about the action they had taken against the out-of-turn promotions in police force and also cite the reasons if they had not taken any steps.
During proceedings, the CJP inquired from Sindh Advocate General Abdul Fatah Malik that they had passed a comprehensive order on the Karachi law and order on October 6 last, but what steps they had taken to implement it. The advocate general said that they had implemented 100 percent of the directives.
The CJP told Malik that they had already issued them a notice on a contempt plea moved by Awami National Party Senator Haji Adeel for not implementing the court’s judgement. “After lapse of so much time, if you failed to implement our judgement, then definitely you would have to face the contempt proceedings,” he warned.
The AG said that the killing incidents were not restricted to Karachi alone. The police personnel were being killed by “faceless enemy”.
The CJP told him that when the court laid its ruling over the issue, everyone in the province lauded it and questioned the steps for de-politicizing of the police force.
“How could you expect to improve situation when you hire employees from other departments for the police force,” he remarked.
Malik replied that they had arrested a number of persons involved in crimes who were being tried.
The CJP told him that it was a phenomenon world over and cited US school shooting incident. He observed that the authorities concerned should have taken immediate steps to control occurrence of such incidents.
The AG maintained that there were 2 million foreigners residing in Karachi.
He said after the court’s observation, they had demoted 5,000 shoulder promotions given to police officers while the relevant ordinance also lapsed.
“No more political appointments in police force are made now,” he added in affirmative tone.
However, he complained that whenever, they reverted an out-of-turn promotion, the said official approached the high court for stay.
The CJP told him to bring a petition before them for grant of leave.